After missing out on the last World Cup in Qatar, Italy is committed to being present at the European Championship in 2024. On Thursday, March 23, la Squad Azzurra compete against England in-house for the qualification of that tournament, after which Malta is the opponent three days later. In the run-up to those matches, however, national coach Roberto Mancini is struggling with the necessary offensive absentees and has therefore chosen to include the relatively unknown Mateo Retegui, attacker of Club Atlético Tigre, in his selection. Mancini will announce the rest of his selection on Friday.
Retegui is a 23-year-old born Argentinian who has never played football in Italy. He does have Italian nationality, because he has a grandmother who comes from that country. This made a call possible. “We followed him for a while,” Mancini reveals in conversation with DAZN. “He is a young boy who has been a basic player in the Argentine league for two years now. He has qualities that we lack. We thought he would not want to come, but he immediately said ‘yes’, so we called him up.” Mancini knows the necessary concerns at the forefront. Ciro Immobile is injured, Gianluca Scamacca returns from an injury and Giacomo Raspadori is a substitute. “We don’t have many options.”
Retegui has deliberately not made itself heard yet. His father stood La Gazzetta dello Sport already speaking. “He is very happy, proud and enthusiastic. He used to play in the youth academy at River Plate as a defense midfielder when he was a kid. He did that between the ages of nine and fourteen. He left then because he was also very interested in was in field hockey. He was also part of the youth national team. He played both sports until he was 15, until he was ‘rediscovered’ by a Boca scout, who convinced him to play football.” It never came from a call-up for Argentina. “The Under 19 team once called him up for a South American tournament in 2018. That’s it.”
Retegui joined Boca Juniors in 2016. The attacker has since played only one game for Boca, because he was rented out to Estudiantes, Club Atlético Talleres and Club Atlético Tigre. At the latter club, he impresses this season by finding the net six times in seven games. Tigre has an option in the lease to take over fifty percent of his rights at the end of the season. Udinese wanted to take over Retegui in January, but the attacker then preferred a longer stay at Tigre. In the corridors, AC Milan is mentioned as a possible new destination.